I used to blog at www.tryingtobeamedicalstudent.blogspot.com - then I stopped being a medical student and became a very junior doctor and blogged here.
Then, being a junior doctor and having little time, I sort of lost motivation for blogging and now I'm mostly found on Twitter - @TryingtobeaDr. Follow me there!

Thursday, 7 March 2013

Here’s a toast… to abortion rights, on International Women's Day

I wrote this some time ago (this will become obvious given that it mentions a few news items that are now not so topical), and not got around to publish it. Today, International Women's Day, seems like an appropriate time to share it.

Here’s a toast… to abortion rights OR This is what a feminist doctor looks like

Ani diFranco’s song Self-Evident, which is mostly about the September 11th
attacks but also about so much more, includes the line:

“Here’s a toast to all those nurses and doctors who daily
provide women with a choice”

Today I provided a woman with a choice – her choice for an
abortion. A termination of pregnancy. I administered and inserted the medication to end her early pregnancy. In practical terms, it was the same as what I often do for miscarriage, there was no
difference in the procedure; the difference was that in this case, the
embryo/foetus was alive. We were ending her pregnancy because she wanted us to.

I am really proud of this. I am pro-choice and proud of
the fact that I can help make abortion accessible to women who want it
(following appropriate counselling) and that we live in a country where this is
available. I believe women* have the right to choose.

That’s not to say I think abortion is great; it’s a shame to
lose potential lives especially when there are so many people in the world who
would do anything to have a baby, but the right of the woman to have control
over her body and her future trumps any right of some cells and tissue that are
only a potential person rather than an actual person.

In a month where the news has been full of debate about Savita Halappanavar, the woman who died in Ireland, from septicaemia due to
infected products of conception (infected pregnancy/miscarriage), after she was denied an abortion for a
pregnancy that was failing anyway and making her very unwell. Although the
Irish law is extremely restrictive on abortion, it appears that they could have
ended her pregnancy, and increased her chance of survival, whilst still acting
within the law, given that there was “real and substantive” threat to her life.

So this is how I express myself as a feminist doctor – I do
the same job as other doctors would, I just get a bit more enthusiastic about
it and about the opportunities that this job provides, opportunities for making
the world a better and pro-choicier place.

I’d stiill do this even if we had vile campaigners, (such as Abort67,
who have recently been targeting university campuses [graphic picture in link]) protesting outside
the hospital, although I am very glad that there aren’t any. They’re probably
not aware that we do social terminations in the NHS hospital, since it’s not an
abortion clinic. The protest groups are deeply unpleasant, wildly inaccurate in the “facts” that they quote, and wave horrific
pictures, which must be so traumatic for anyone who has ever miscarried a
wanted pregnancy, to see – some of those pictures could bring back very painful
memories.

In conclusion, I am glad I can do important things in my
job, and please would Jeremy Hunt and vile Nadine Dorries (the jungle could keep her)
back right off and leave me to do my job to the best of my ability with
the best medical evidence available. Kindly stop spouting rubbish about
abortions and throwing your political weight around, when we could be having
sensible discussions about how to ensure reproduction rights for women, whilst
also considering also the appropriateness of interventions concerning the
foetus. Note sensible discussions.

Right, I’m off to a Reclaim the Night march and rally
(gender inclusive).This is what a feminist doctor looks like!(yes, it's not Reclaim the Night time of year, but it was when I wrote this!)

This is a picture I took of the badge display at the Women's Library in London, which I visited recently. It is a wonderful treasure trove of feminist history, I'd thoroughly recommend it! (Visit before 22nd March, when it closes and moves to a new venue in June)

As an aside, I recall a conversation amongst medical
students when I was in my 3rd year of medical school (5 years ago –
took the scenic route through medical school) about FY1 junior doctor jobs. We
discussed that gynae might be good, and someone pointed out that you’d have to
do abortions if you worked in gynae, and that really put me off. I remember
thinking that I agree with women having a right to an abortion, but I didn’t
want to actually do the abortion myself. I had a different, and rather
inaccurate, understanding of what the actual process involved, but I’m very
glad my opinions have changed since then. I’m glad the women I look after can
have someone performing their abortion who’s not uncomfortable about doing it.

*women and any other pregnant people – people with various trans
identities can have anatomy permitting them to become pregnant without defining
themselves as women. It wouldn’t be the first time (e.g. the American Thomas
Beattie, and the wonderful Jason Elvis Barker). I have frequently referred to
“pregnant people” in a range of contexts, rather than “pregnant women” and
almost every time, it gets me a funny look, but I maintain it’s more accurate
and inclusive.

Personally I’m a lot more comfortable with the term “woman”
to describe myself than I was a few years ago (one can be both trans/of queer
gender and identify as a woman
without being a transwoman, they are not mutually exclusive) but even so, if I
were to become pregnant, I might rather be thought of a pregnant person than
everything being “woman” somehow. And my own identity and preference doesn’t
make me any less of a feminist.

One day, I intend to follow up this post with another post looking into what happens when women are denied the right to abortion, and also what happens when they do have an abortion - there is some interesting research I'd like to collate. Watch this space.

10 comments:

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